Biking Day 33

• Length ridden: 90 km
• Ascent: 300 meters
• Rating: 8.5 out of 10 - coool having reached the coast!
• Highlights: Nantes! The guys at the camping were really friendly
• Lowlight: The front right foot of the elephant stopped working
• Map of the day

Included in the price of the room was a rather average breakfast and it was only 9 am that I left for downtown Nantes. The outskirts of the town were just like any other city - large shopping malls, office buildings and main arteries leading to the center.

It was a crispy, sunny Saturday morning, with an almost empty downtown - and I liked the city immediately. A cathedral, major churches, imposant buildings in the mediaeval town, mixed with some modern, cool architecture - all paired with a mediterran, light feeling - even though the sea itself was some 60 kilometers away. The town even has an opera house.

Opposite the cathedral was an expansive paper store - I am mentioning this, as Georg, a friend of my I was supposed to visit in Ireland, is an owner of a similar store in Vienna. I told the very friendly lady manager about Viennese "competition", showed her the website, she was very much interested, took note of Georg`s store.

At the city hall, I saw a freshly wed couple leaving with a Citroen "Duck" 2CV, they were cut cramped into the small car, them sitting on the back seat, the proud father at front, next to the driver.

A single major highlight is the Breton palace, called Château des ducs de Bretagne. If you remember, I wrote that by crossing the bridge at Saint Nazaire, I had left Brittany, and here is a Breton castle - and we are definitely in a different region. The explanation of this is the following - historically, Nantes was the capital of Brittany for hundreds of years. The castle was built in the 15th century by Francois II, one of the last rulers of Brittany, and later became the Breton residence of the French monarchy.

From the castle, an interesting building caught my attention and I visited it. It was the former LU (Lefèvre-Utile) biscuit factory, built about a hundred years ago out of concrete and metal, which had been abandoned and had been transferred to a performance center.

I spotted a restaurant next to the factory, sat down with not the highest of hopes and ordered a burger with some Bretton cheese - and once again, I found it to be just average. The dessert was actually not too bad, some local speciality.

In Nantes, a well-known figure was born, Jules Verne - as a young boy, I read many of his books. To commemorate him - and the advancement of engineering in the 19th century, an entire island has been dedicated to machines - and this is called Les Machines de l’Île. There is a large, 3-storey merry-go-round, but the definitive highlight is the 12 meter (!) high walking (!) elephant, that even takes passengers on its back. It even blows water on anyone in its path, to the dismay of some young kids who are not prepared for such a surprise. It is pretty unique and you gotta love the French for their creativity not only what the machines are concerned, but also the surrounding architecture. Alas, French quality is not the best in the world - the elephant started walking - and soon its front right foot got stuck. Not even a couple of engineers could solve the problem, they just made it go around on just three feet.

I first thought of leaving Nantes around noon, then delayed it to 2 pm, I enjoyed the town so much that I left only around 3:30 in the afternoon. The thought of staying there occurred to me, but somehow I wanted to enjoy the nice weather and get back to the coast.

There was the option of riding back on the same bike path I had covered the previous day, I believe that I mentioned I do not like backtracking, so I decided to ride in a southwestern direction. It was no longer Brittany, neither Normandy - so the number of historical highlights were somewhat less, or maybe it was for the selection of small roads that not much was to be seen. Quiet villages, forests, a bit of agriculture - that surrounded me that afternoon. The names of the villages did not make it easy to remember, there was, for example, a place called "Saint-Même-le-Tenu, Commune of Machecoul-Saint-Même".

Quite late, I got to a place called La Garnache and had a little rest there. The road I was on was called Rue de Chateau, but there was no chateau to te seen, so I set off towards the sun. I spotted a restaurant, and behind it, suddenly, the castle from the 13th century showed up. The best view of it was from the restaurant, so I asked the staff of this otherwise empty place whether I could take a few pictures; one gentleman got up and without saying a single word, opened the door to the this wonderful garden, with a main building and not less than two towers, or at least their ruins.

It was 7:30 pm, meaning lots of daylight to go and the coast being just 25 or so kilometers away - and except for taking a quick snapshot of an occasional pretty church, there was nothing to hold me up. It did not really matter to me where I would arrive, at long as it was on the coast - this is how I got to the department of Vendée, to Côte de Lumière, onto the Plage des Demoiselles, or Young Ladies` Beach, in free translation. For sure, there some young ladies, but also both young and old men, and even old ladies - and everyone on this long, sandy beach was preoccupied with watching the sun setting into the ocean.

I had been riding for quite a few days without swimming, so I went for a dip after the sunset - as it was still not dark. The water was refreshing.

It was past 10 pm when I was dressed again - it was only then that I started thinking about a place to sleep. Apparently, there were no hotels or B&B`s in the vicinity, or at least I did not find them, however, Google indicated there would be a number of campgrounds close by.

I started riding towards the south, not feeling tired, as the water has refreshed me, so even thought of biking for a couple of hours more, then crashing at a beach. That would have meant being quite out of bounds for the following day or two (I am not thirty anymore...), so I went for the more sensible idea of checking out a campground.

The very first one, called Camping Demoiselles Plage, appeared only after a few minutes of riding and there was a huge sign saying "no vacancy". I still thought to ask (you know, knock and...). It was some cool young surfer guys, blond hair, tanned skin, big smile - who were the caretakers, in my part of the world, they tend to be uppity and make fun of the older guys - not them. They discussed the matter in French for a whole, then one of them told me to follow him. Right next to where they had their "headquarters" during the day, a tent with carpets and large armchairs for hanging out and doing paperwork for reservations, they pointed out to a small, but nice spot beneath a pine tree - so this is where they managed to squeeze me in this otherwise gigantic campground, if I recall correctly, it was over 15 acres in area (or close to 7 or 8 soccer fields!). Some of the caretakers, both young men and women, were still in this cool tent, about to retire and were very friendly (same old, same old...), they even allowed me to charge my batteries in the tent for the night. I think that night cost me €20.

Even though my actual biking started only around after 3 pm, the kilometer count went up to 90 that day - which I think is quite OK.